1968 Plymouth Hemi Super Stock Barracuda - Things Worked Out

"Sometimes a deal just comes together," says Chuck Smith. "In 2004, I heard of a 1968 Super Stock Barracuda body that could be bought for $9,000."

2/9

You think we're going to say Chuck scored Don Grotheer's original Hemi Super Stock Barracuda for nine grand, don't you? Well, you can unclench, because that's not how the story plays out, though it is a pretty good story. Chuck laid it out for us while we photographed the car at the Forge Invitational Musclecar Show in Tennessee.

"I had spent several years trying to purchase Grotheer's Barracuda from Ken Hensley when I heard about the $9,000 body," Chuck says. "I went to the bank and pulled out $20,000, guessing the deal was too good to be true. The $9,000 price had gone up by the time I got there, and after looking at it, I had some concerns. I still believe it was a real S/S car, but without any history and only a body, I declined to purchase it."

3/9Chrysler was so happy with its '65 Race Hemi program it repeated it for the '68 cars, though with iron heads and magnesium cross-ram. The velocity stacks are factory.

On the way home, Chuck got a call from Ken, who said he would sell him the Grotheer car if he were still interested. "Needless to say, I stopped in Knoxville and had lunch with him. He said he would like to get a $20,000 deposit as soon as possible--the exact amount I had on me!"

Ken bought the car in 1973 from the Campanella Brothers out of Pennsylvania and raced it until 1995, updating it along the way by cutting the rear quarters for tire clearance, tubbing the wheelwells to clear a narrowed rearend, and converting it from a four-speed to an automatic.

Chuck spent two years collecting original '68 Hemi Barracuda parts before starting the restoration. "We got the car back to running order, having Ken build the engine while we rebuilt the front end and transmission. Then we assembled it to running order, but didn't finish it. At the last minute, we decided to take it to the Hemi reunion in Minnesota, not knowing that Don Grotheer was also going to be there. When he walked by us, not really seeing what we had, we asked him to help us push the car."

4/9A100 van seats were very light to begin with. The aluminum risers are one of our all-time favorite automotive pieces.

Don soon realized it was his car. Some of the telltales include the addition of Barracuda emblems on the front fenders (since he was sponsored by Chrysler, he added them, while the other S/S cars came from Hurst without), a cutout in the inner fender for the cool can, holes in the other inner fender to mount the rev limiter, and the aluminum strip pop-riveted to the underside of the hoodscoop to reinforce it, where most of the other drivers used a couple of lengths of vertical tubing.

"We spent several days at the show with Don and his wife Joann and became friends," Chuck tells us. "After 30 years away from drag racing, Don got the bug back, and he showed up at my shop one day with a truck load of rare Hemi parts, wanting to do some horse trading. After a couple more loads and trips out to his place, with what I'd already accumulated, we had enough original parts to restore Don's old car and build a clone for him to play with."

5/9A series of chance encounters brought Don Grotheer's original Super Stock Barracuda to Chuck Smith--and reunited Grotheer with his old race car.

Chrysler's Max Wedge and Hemi lightweights raised the bar for factory drag packages in the early '60s, but the '68 drag program obliterated the bar. These cars started life as 383-powered Barracuda S models that were shipped to Hurst Performance in gray primer without an engine, trans, front sheetmetal, or door glass. There, a fiberglass hood and fenders were installed, the bumpers and doors were thrown in the acid vat to lighten them, and 1/8-inch-thick Chemcor side glass was installed. Window lift mechanisms were replaced with a hunk of seatbelt, lightweight buckets from the A100 vans were bolted to hole-sawed aluminum seat risers, and the back seat was replaced with a cardboard panel. Sound deadener, seam sealer, sun visors, windshield wipers, rearview mirrors, radio, and heater were all deleted at the factory.

To lighten the nose, Hurst moved the battery to the trunk and swapped the drum brakes for Bendix four-piston discs. Under the hoodscoop, a cross-rammed 426 Hemi was installed, backed by either a four-speed manual and a B-Body Dana 60, or a 727 automatic with an 8 3/4 rear. The rearend hung on special Super Stock springs fitted with that famous Mopar adjustable pinion snubber.

Owners picked up the cars from Hurst in primer and black fiberglass and were left to their own devices for paint and fine tuning. "Don said when he picked up the car, it didn't have the hood," Chuck says, "and had an early-style aluminum cross-ram intake. When Chrysler shipped him the hood, they also sent a magnesium cross-ram."

Smith's shop, Chuck's Classic Cars in Philadelphia, Tennessee, had its work cut out for it with the restoration. A donor car from Desert Valley Auto gave up its trunk floor and rear framerails, while another donor from King-Stokes Auto provided its front floor. New quarters were hung, with the wheel openings clearanced as per Hurst's original modifications, and a new driver's door was acid-dipped to original Hurst thickness.

6/9Grotheer replaced the Hurst drag shocks with factory Chrysler Imperial units, as they had more travel. He has had these on his shelf ever since.

Since Ken had a lot of experience with the Barracuda's Hemi, Chuck tapped Hensley Performance in Knoxville, Tennessee, to do it again. Starting with a '66 block bored 0.030 over, Ken Tuftrided the crank and fitted it with detailed connecting rods and 13.5:1 forged pistons in place of the original 12.5:1 ones. Matt Hensley ported and polished the heads to take advantage of the 0.690-inch-lift intake and 0.688-inch-lift exhaust. Original Holley 780-cfm carbs and factory velocity stacks feed it, a Prestolite Transignitor tach-drive distributor fires it, and original Hooker headers with 2-inch collectors exhaust it.

Finishing the engine is the 10-quart aluminum oil pan Grotheer made back in 1968 to replace the factory 6-quart piece, along with a Hurst-installed lightweight aluminum alternator bracket, an aluminum water pump housing, and a seven-blade aluminum fan. Slick-shift mods let Chuck bang the A-833 four-speed box using an original Hurst shifter with Reverse lockout.

Baseball player Lefty Gomez once said, "I'd rather be lucky than good," and we think that applies to Chuck and his crew. As good as they are, he owes a lot to a chance phone call at the exact right time, a last-minute decision to attend a show, and a lucky meeting at that show. We'd say things worked out nicely. MCR